State of the Union, Obama and Twitter: Who has the most tweets?

The president's State of the Union once again lit up social media and WSJ's Sara Murray assesses the moments that generated the biggest responses, including Barack Obama's "Mad Men" allusion to gender pay and the web's continuing fascination with Joe...

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It proved Tuesday night that the power of social media through Twitter recorded the voice of the nation with tweets before, during and after the President’s speech, according to The New York Times.

Twitter also became the forum where opinion on President Obama’s State of the Union address seemed to crystallize before he had even finished speaking. The power of Twitter to shape the debate (for better or worse) was on display shortly before Mr. Obama began, when a very disparaging Representative Randy Weber, Republican of Texas, posted an error-riddled message that called the president a ‘Socialistic dictator,’ and quickly went viral.

Everything government officials and public figures say becomes immediate sound bites and none better than to use than Twitter. ‘Conventional wisdom is like fast-drying concrete in the Twitter age — it doesn’t take long to harden,’ said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. ‘Twitter is one of the fastest ways to shape opinion.’

The ‘tweet’ was the most evident before the after speech commentaries. Democrats and Republicans competed to make their views the majority, often with little regard to what the president actually said. Members of Congress sent out 750 tweets over the course of Mr. Obama’s speech, according to data provided by Twitter.

The hastag is where it was at last night as congressional Republicans rallied around hashtags like #CloseTheGap, to push their message of reducing income inequality, and #YearOfAction, to call on Mr. Obama to act on some of their major proposals in the coming year. (Of course, especially after the president called for a ‘year of action’ in his address, #YearofAction took off among Republicans and Democrats alike.)

Last week, Republicans brought in Sean Evins, Twitter’s partnerships manager, to give a tutorial on the best ways to use Vine. (Democrats did the same in November.) Mr. Evins’s message was simple: Use Vine and other social media platforms to bring constituents closer.

Twitter captured the tone of the President and the Republicans. “Frowny face Boehner #SOTUinThreeWords,” one Twitter user wrote. The message did not go viral, but it did have the ring of truth: throughout much of the address, Speaker John A. Boehner sat stone-faced behind the president’s left shoulder and did look a bit frowny. He received the third highest number of tweets.

To read more articles on the use of social media, please see the articles listed below on the Author’s suggestions and view the video atop this article which gives who received the most tweets!

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Victoria Wagner Ross's interest in technology is a result of her business career and use of computer models in her Investment advisory practice. She holds a MBA from Thunderbird Global School of Management.
Ms. Wagner's 2014 award winning 5 star Reader's Favorite fiction novella "Blue Speaks Eternally" about a blue whale in the Bay of California and the ecology challenges to the planet is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She received the bronze medal from the Jenkins Group annual "Books For Better Living" to authors who advance green technology for the planet.
A worldwide traveler, she currently resides in California.
email @Victoriaross888@gmail.com